This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 602: A Battlefield Like a Meat Grinder

Chapter 602: Chapter 602: A Battlefield Like a Meat Grinder

Twelve "Dragonfly" transport planes formed a bomber squadron, sweeping past the bombing area marked on the map.

It was still the Pigman Brothers, who were experienced pilots, leading the team—navigating the guide plane at the front with the other eleven planes maintaining formation on the side.

By incorporating flight parameters such as altitude, airspeed, entry angle, and wind speed into formulas, the lead plane calculated the approximate bombing distance, issued the bombing signal to the other planes, then opened the bomb bay doors, and the bombardier started sliding the bombs, installed on rails, downward.

Although using transport planes to carry bombs was somewhat reckless from various perspectives, the lack of precision could completely be compensated for with quantity.

Air bombs fell like dumplings onto the marked urban areas, quickly igniting bursts of orange-red flames between the abandoned highways and skyscrapers.

Most skyscrapers left from the Era of Prosperity were unusually sturdy.

Even after two hundred years of weathering, and enduring a round of carpet bombing, most buildings still maintained their main structural integrity.

Only one hundred-meter-tall high-rise, probably hit in a load-bearing structure by an aerial bomb, began to collapse slowly from the middle floor towards the north.

Watching that earth-shattering scene and the swirling dust rising hundreds of meters that cleared the haze, Ice and Fire Brother at the cabin window couldn’t help smacking his lips.

"Damn... all this just to deal with a sniper?"

Although this method is also used in reality, it’s mostly just a guided missile thrown over, or a few grenade rounds fired.

It’s rare to see such an investment, sending a bomber squadron to deal with one sniper.

It somewhat seemed like firing a cannon to kill a mosquito.

Not Professional Fan chuckled on the communications channel.

"Use your brain and think about it, would mutants use snipers in such thick fog?"

Ice and Fire Brother slapped his forehead.

"Hisss... now that you mention it, I get it."

He had unconsciously brought reality into it, where such reckless actions are of course impossible, but this was after all in the game.

Those sneaky folks nearby were obviously the little rats of the Torch Church. Whatever ghostly plans they had, smacking them down was definitely right.

The only surprise was that the NPCs also had such a clear rationale.

Chatter from other players aboard the planes came through the communication channel.

"The fog’s too thick; can’t see anything on the ground."

"Speaking of which, can we bomb that guy to death?"

"Then we’ll have to rely on our brothers on the ground to keep their eyes peeled!" Not Professional Fan laughed and tilted the control stick, guiding the bomber squadron back towards the ground airport.

After a pause, he continued.

"We should think about how to land first."

Landing in foggy conditions was not a big issue for him, but for the rookies, it was a different story.

He hoped there’d be fewer crashes.

And hoped the ground crew wouldn’t curse their mothers...

...

From above, the hundred-meter-high building breaking mid-section looked merely like a slab of tofu split in half.

However, from the ground, it resembled a massive square mountain.

Even hundreds of meters away from the war zone, the sand and pebbles blown up by the wind still reached the tops of the heads of the combatants on both sides, falling like raindrops.

The violent airflow temporarily dispersed the floating spore clouds.

The eyes of every mutant soldier bulged, unconsciously gaping towards the crashing building, unaware of the mouthful of dust they swallowed.

What was happening?!

Players reacted similarly, even halting their firing for a moment, unable to help exclaiming in awe at the stunning sight.

"... Awesome, if this was made into CG it would be solid!"

"666!"

"Solid my ass!" Shuke, flying the helicopter, exchanged bullets while crying and laughing at the same time, "Think about how to get past this obstacle first!"

Beta, driving the toy car, lay next to him.

This brother probably thought the thick fog would mean safety and tried to dash through to fix the car, only to be shot in the head with a loud snap.

He quickly dragged him back, but his skull was already shattered, probably sitting at home completely clueless about what had happened.

The Chimera Armored Car was stranded in the middle of the road, firing continuously at the mutant positions to provide suppressive firepower.

But the mutants had gotten smarter, no longer charging head-on but hiding in the alleyways on both sides of the streets, infiltrating and surrounding them from both directions.

"Why don’t those flying the planes bomb here too?" Shrimp Heart Pig cursed.

Beta rolled his eyes.

"Do you want to get flamed on the forum?"

Crouching on the other side of the street were the brothers of the Death Legion, who, hearing their complaints, joked.

"Remember to ask Mosquito Brother to turn off friendly fire before bombing!"

"Hahaha!"

"This game even has that feature?"

While trapped in a difficult back-and-forth on a narrow road, the players stationed there were not the slightest bit nervous.

Since the bombers had taken care of the distant sniper, it indicated that the command center had noticed their situation.

More support was on the way.

They just needed to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

A brief respite was interrupted by a gunshot.

Combat in the narrow streets resumed; streaks of tracer bullets wildly crisscrossed the confined area.

Those green-skinned brutes were not truly foolish. Having finally crippled an armored vehicle capable of spewing flames, they were naturally reluctant to let it go easily.

A hundred-man team, having been routed from other battle lines, was quickly pulled in. A group of howling mutants pounced fiercely toward it.

As long as they could tear a gap in the Alliance’s offensive, they could rescue this crumbling defensive line.

However, what stood before them wasn’t just a stranded Chimera; there was also an expanded hundred-man team from the Death Legion.

These guys’ equipment wasn’t as impressive as some other corps, and their Sequence Level wasn’t exceptional either, but each of them was a ruthless character unafraid of death.

And they were experts in street fighting!

Each of them wielded a shotgun or submachine gun, and some carried bolt action rifles with bayonets, engaging in close combat with the mutant soldiers in the alleyways.

A mutant wielding a club had just smashed the skull of an unlucky fellow. Before it could taste victory, an old fellow with a shotgun blew its head open.

Other players grappled with mutants and simply detonated the explosives they carried, both instantly turning into a blood mist.

Even the barbaric mutants, who lived a savage life surviving on blood, could not help but reveal a hint of terror at such ruthless tactics.

These people were all madmen!

The ten-meter-long alley was filled with severed limbs and corpses. Thick blood and organs turned the place into a dark swamp, while gunfire did not cease for a moment.

As the battle reached a critical point, a rapid and dense artillery fire suddenly erupted from the other side of the street.

"Boom, boom, boom—!"

Thick bolts of lightning struck the mutants rushing out of the alley, blasting their muscular bodies into a rain of blood and flesh.

"Roar—!"

A mutant, eyes reddened from rage, hurled a lit pack of explosives at the stranded armored vehicle.

The bulky explosive pack, as big as a backpack and coated in black tar, could stick to the surface of the armor.

"Holy shit!"

Seeing this, Shuk, piloting a helicopter, cursed loudly, threw aside his machine gun, rushed forward, yanked the explosive pack from the armored surface, and dove to the ground.

Almost the moment he hit the ground, the explosion tore him to pieces, striking the armor of the vehicle with a clanging sound.

If that had detonated on the surface of the armor, not just a lightly armored vehicle, but even a tank would have likely been taken out.

The mutant’s eyes bulged, almost popping out as it had not expected that the almost certainly doomed "box" would be rescued in just three short seconds.

But there was no more time for astonishment.

As the explosive pack detonated, a barrage of armor-piercing incendiary rounds swept past, shredding it into a pile of minced meat.

"Shuk!!!"

Watching Shuk get blown to bits, Shrimp Pig Heart wailed in agony, gripping the assault rifle and bursting into the alley entrance in a futile spray of bullets.

Watching yet another armored vehicle storm in, the mutants understood they had lost their last chance.

The leading mutant howled and the cronies firing from behind cover cursed bitterly as they left their shelters and retreated.

Except for a few blood-crazed individuals still fighting furiously, most of the green-skinned beasts retreated toward the southern defenses.

Seeing the mutants begin to retreat, Mole of the Escaping Valley stepped on the driver, directing his buddy to drive his vehicle in front of the stranded Chimera, chasing the retreating mutant soldiers with a couple of bursts.

The rear doors of the vehicle swung open, and Gnome King Riches and Elena along with others jumped out, dispersing to take cover on both sides of the armored vehicle, guns ready.

One of the players, skilled in repair, grabbed his toolbox and quickly ran to the side of the stranded Chimera Armored Car.

After moving a blown-apart engineer’s corpse, he opened the hood with his tools and immediately started working with a wrench and screwdriver.

Mole popped half his body out from the turret, looked up at the bombarded part of the city, and clicked his tongue.

Then he looked at the player repairing the vehicle and shouted.

"How’s it going? Can you fix it?"

The busy player responded without looking up.

"The engine casing has a hole... I’ll try to see, movement should be fine, but the power might be cut in half."

"This is now on you, if you can drive it back to base that’s enough."

"OK!"

The player fixing the car lifted his wrench in response, and just as Mole was about to duck back into the armored vehicle, Debt Giant Eye from the Death Legion approached with a rifle in his arms.

Before he could speak, Gnome King Riches suddenly widened his eyes as if seeing a rare animal, grinning cheekily.

"Yo, Big Eyes?! What brought you here?"

Not catching the undercurrent in the comment, Debt Giant Eye chuckled smugly.

"Cut it out, I’ve been here for four days!"

Elena turned her head back in jest.

"I thought we’d lost contact with you."

"Get lost, you’re the one who lost contact! Your whole family lost contact!"

Realizing the implications from his expression, Debt Giant Eye rolled his eyes in annoyance, then turned to Mole sitting atop the turret, watching the excitement and shouted.

"Bro, we’ve taken on a new mission, but we’re short on hands. Can you help out if you’re free?"

Thinking that Brother Chicken probably wouldn’t need him, and likely utterly engrossed in his own madness at the moment, Mole looked at him interestedly and asked.

"What’s the mission?"

"Support for the brothers of the Burning Corps."

"Do those monsters actually need support?"

"That’s what the mission briefing says. They ran into some trouble in the bombing area... We’ve lost contact, command guessed it’s probably those Torch Church folks."

Looks like a hollow victory.

Mole stroked his chin.

"Communications jammed?"

Debt Giant Eye: "Probably."

"Okay, I’ll get a few people to come over."

With his index finger by his ear, Mole was looking at the map on VM, calmly issuing orders.

"Groups 2 and 4, pay attention, there’s a new task. Immediately head to the location marked on the map. Also, there is communication interference in the target area, activate the backup contact plan!"

The so-called backup contact plan was to always have an infantryman offline acting as a human radio station, using group chat to exchange information from the frontline.

Soon, two neat responses came through the communication channel.

"Received!"

After hanging up the communication, Mole showed no ambiguity, gave Big Eyes a gesture to follow, and then shouted to the brothers on the street.

"You guys hold this position for a while. I’ll go check out the adjacent area with the brothers from the Death Legion and come back soon."

Holding a rifle and tightly staring at the empty streets ahead, Gnome King Riches shouted behind him towards the Chimera Armored Car.

"Okay!"

...

At the same time.

In the urban district 600 meters west of the frontline, bombarded by bombers, the streets were a mess with dark craters and cracked walls, twisted rebar and concrete had a few clusters of flames still not extinguished.

Several blurred corpses smeared on the ground, appeared to be Variants that wandered in this neighborhood, caught in a recent explosion, leaving only these remnants behind.

Organic bodies exposed outside of cover had almost no chance of survival.

Busting open the damaged metal door, Chimo emerged from the ruins with a scowl, greedily breathed in the fresh air but was choked by the stinging smell of gunpowder, coughing violently twice.

"Damn, that bastard!"

Lucky for him, his quick reaction had allowed him and his partner to rapidly retreat to the structurally sound stairwell, otherwise they almost lost their lives.

Thinking of this, he could not help but want to curse at that old thing who only spoke half of it and looked after his own escape.

In any case, this place was no longer safe. He needed to retreat to a safer area...

The moment his right foot stepped on the street, a sense of alarm suddenly surged in his heart, causing Chimo to reflexively roll down and hide behind some concrete debris.

Almost as soon as he hid behind the concrete debris, an arrow struck where he had just been standing.

Seeing the arrow, Chimo scoffed at the corner of his mouth, but this mocking expression froze on his face in less than 0.5 seconds.

Out of the corner of his eye, he faintly caught a glimpse of a faint red glow!

"Shit—"

He didn’t have time to dodge; he only heard a dripping sound as the arrow instantly exploded into a burst of flame, a raging shockwave sending steel pellets flying around.

The surging blast wave hit his Armor, and Chimo felt his organs trembling from the solid impact.

Even with the protection of Exoskeleton, he still suffered minor injuries.

Unable to deal with the cuts caused by the shrapnel, he pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it at his feet, staggering to a safer cover behind.

Tapping the communication button on his helmet, he roared through the communication channel.

"Tang He! Find that archer for me! Tang He?"

There was no response in the communication channel.

Chimo’s expression stiffened, immediately realizing that it was Alzu’s doing, and suddenly cursed.

"That damn old fart..."

That guy was definitely playing "release the hounds" now.

Those creatures with undeveloped brains couldn’t distinguish friend from foe and would mindlessly stuff anything that moved into their mouths.

He needed to leave this area quickly!

On the other hand, seeing the guy who dodged the lethal strike, Fang Chang’s face showed a hint of surprise, but it was just surprise.

Thinking to run away?

"Heh, let’s see where you can run!"

Just at the same time after the bombing, he and Old White, along with twenty other players, arrived in the area via helicopter to commence the search.

Now that the target’s location was discovered, he certainly wouldn’t let this guy escape.

"Old White... the person is right in front of me, confirmed as an apostle of The Torch Church, location is marked on the map, Old White?"

Only the sound of static came through the communication channel.

Fang Chang’s expression turned a bit serious.

Communication jam?

"Damn!"

Cursing quietly, he took out another Explosive Arrow and loaded it onto the Dawn Composite Bow, crouching as he advanced towards the cover where the target was hiding.

His nearby teammates should have heard the gunfire and were on their way to this area.

He needed to stall this apostle before he could escape.

Fang Chang faintly heard Brother Shabi’s screams.

"What the fuck?! What is this thing—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a tendril as swift as lightning struck his chest, sending him flying like a baseball, and he heavily fell to the ground unconscious.

Fang Chang stared unblinkingly at the monster, swallowing hard.

"’Butcher’...?"

No—

This thing was weirder than the "mutated slime fungus" offspring in Qingquan City!

Not only was its size several times larger, but its destructive power had clearly risen by more than one level! It did somewhat resemble the evolutionary body from the previous Tide.

Seeing the hulking meat mountain move towards Brother Shabi, Fang Chang knew he couldn’t wait any longer and, without hesitation, shot an arrow straight at the creature’s face.

The explosive blaze burst upon the monster’s face, blowing its head into pieces.

Fang Chang was slightly stunned.

His explosive arrow contained only a few grams of explosive, just a bit more than a standard fragmentation grenade.

When had it become so powerful?

And as he had expected, things were not as simple as he had imagined.

The creature, whose head was blown away, acted as if nothing had happened, its massive body not even swaying.

Then, chunks of flesh, as if controlled by some autonomous consciousness, crawled like earthworms towards the meat mountain’s shoulders.

In less than ten seconds, a grotesque new head had grown back on the previously empty shoulders. Carefully looking at the blown apart remnants, they weren’t shards of a skull but rather chunks of maggot-like flesh.

Some of them had been blasted apart, but many were still alive.

The discarded pieces stubbornly twisted their broken bodies, crawling towards the meat mountain, seemingly wanting to rejoin the main body.

Gazing at this unbelievable scene, Fang Chang’s eyes widened.

What kind of absurd dark technology was this?!

And where did this creature come from?!

And what gave him goosebumps wasn’t even all this—

Those hollow eyes were now looking right at him.

Though dozens of meters away, though veiled by layers of gray-green fog, Fang Chang could clearly feel that he had successfully drawn the BOSS’s aggro.

Those wave-like, undulating tendrils were like seaweed floating underwater, yet he knew all too well how fast they could move.

Brother Shabi hadn’t even gotten up from an earlier hit!

"Another BOSS battle, huh..."

Fire sparked in Fang Chang’s eyes, he took another arrow from his quiver, this one marked with an orange label, and set it on the string of his mechanical composite bow.

It was a burning arrow, condensed with solid hydrogen and high-performance kerosene, capable of easily creating a fire spanning several meters wide on the ground.

Since explosions weren’t effective—

He’d use fire instead!

...

A few hundred meters from the blast zone, in a building, Alzu stood in a different location expressionless, watching the bustling city district, a cold smirk suddenly curling at his mouth.

He hadn’t expected that, merely by means of a servant, he could stop the Alliance’s most elite forces, not even thinking that those guys were from the Burning Corps.

However, creating some chaos to help that fool from the Tribunal escape was more than enough.

Although he didn’t quite like those two fools who were more likely to spoil than achieve things, if they weren’t dead from the bombing but were captured alive, it would be trouble for him.

Hopefully, they would learn a bit from this failure and curb their excessive confidence a bit.

Their enemies were not easy to deal with, entirely different from those foolish natives.

That previously unheard of Shelter No. 404 might very well be more dangerous than the corporates and the Academy.

A year ago, those fools from the Tribunal should have realized this.

At this moment, footsteps approached from behind.

A hunched old man with deep wrinkles on his face stopped behind him.

The old man’s skin was dark green, draped in a master of ceremonies robe with bizarre patterns.

By his looks alone, one could tell he was a mutant.

Yet, purely by appearances, no one could guess how old he was.

Looking at Alzu’s back, he sighed gently, drooping his eyes and said softly.

"The people of the Alliance seem endless, and our tribe suffers heavy casualties. If things continue like this, we’re likely to lose this war."

Alzu turned to look at the aged mutant, gazing into those cloudy eyes, then suddenly said,

"Gomo."

"What is it."

"Do you want to restore the glory of Singular Point City?"

His voice had a hint of seduction.

Gomo slightly furrowed his brow, then relaxed it, whispering,

"I dream of it."

"Then persuade your children for me."

Alzu shifted his gaze from his face and continued looking towards the distant city veiled in dense fog, narrowing his eyes as he continued,

"Let him hang on a little longer."

"Before long, the Saint Heir will bestow upon him powers comparable to those of the godly spirits."